Official
Australian release date: 1/1/18. Viewed: 29/12/17.
Director:
Martin McDonagh
Actors: Frances
McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry Jones
Genre:
Mystery/Drama/Comedy
Rating:
MA
‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,
Missouri’ is the third film from writer/director McDonagh (of ‘In Bruges’ &
‘Seven Psychopaths’ fame), and continues his themes of taking something quite
bleak/violent (in this case the murder of a woman’s daughter) and building
situations with characters around it that can still be funny. Mildred
(McDormand) is the focus here, and she rents three billboards from Red (Landry
Jones) to call out the police for not finding her daughter’s murderer, so Chief
Willoughby (Harrelson) is put in a tight spot.
Dixon (Rockwell) is one of his cops and
has a great part as the dimwitted, slightly-bigoted younger cop. McDormand is
exceptional as the ultra-focused and hard-nosed grieving mother, with a few
layers. Harrelson is also good, but Cornish as his wife has the weirdest Australian/Southern
accent mash-up I’ve ever heard! And the age-gap there is hard to comprehend…
The only shame is Dinklage doesn’t get more screen time, but still good seeing
him.
It’s odd that it was all filmed in North
Carolina, not Missouri, as there’s some beautiful scenery shots that definitely
don’t look like St Louis! Also worth noting that Ebbing’s not a real place. The
mystery and investigation is handled quite well and realistically, but the attention
here is on anger – misplaced or otherwise – and how it can consume people and create
a destructive cycle. Not the best use of
music and not quite a perfect ending, but a very solid film.
Overall: Part funny, part bleak, all quite
well done.
Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.
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